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School district, BCSO documents detail alleged relationship

Karisa Wesley is a teacher, coach and athletic director at Arnold High School.

News Herald file photo

By BRAD MILNER and CHRIS OLWELL | News Herald

Published: Thursday, August 22, 2013 at 10:07 PM.

PANAMA CITY BEACH — A former Arnold High School football standout told law enforcement a teacher provided him with alcohol and they had sex during his senior year of high school, according to documents released by Bay District Schools on Thursday.

Eddie Williams and Andre Allen, another football standout, gave conflicting statements to a district official prior to their interviews with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, which conducted a criminal investigation into the allegations against Karisa Wesley, a teacher, coach and athletic director at Arnold, according to school district and Bay County Sheriff’s Office documents obtained by The News Herald.

Wesley was suspended with pay Wednesday amid allegations she had a sexual relationship with Williams while he was an Arnold student.

The BCSO incident report on the allegations noted no criminal activity given Williams’ age — 19 at the time — and declared statutes of limitations on any potential misdemeanors had expired.

The investigation into the allegations began Aug. 5 after former Arnold teacher Peggy Rambosk Dawson, who is now a Walton County teacher, emailed Sharon Michalik, the district’s executive director of human resources, Arnold Principal Keith Bland and Assistant Principal Gordon Pongratz about allegations of an inappropriate relationship between Williams and Wesley. Superintendent Bill Husfelt decided Tuesday to meet with Wesley and then suspended her Wednesday, the district’s investigative reports say. Husfelt has recommended termination when the School Board is scheduled to consider the matter Tuesday.

School district policy prohibits a teacher from having a relationship with a current student regardless of whether the pupil is an adult. Williams attended Arnold until 2012.

Rumors of impropriety already had been swirling when, in July, Rambosk Dawson asked Allen about the relationship between Wesley, 35, and Williams. Allen told Rambosk Dawson that Wesley and teacher and assistant volleyball coach Tara Lemieux, 28, had smoked pot and drank alcohol with him and Williams at Wesley’s house in Panama City Beach during their senior year, according to the documents. Allen also alleged he heard Williams and Wesley having sex on several occasions, and Rambosk Dawson relayed to Bland via email what Allen said.

PANAMA CITY BEACH — A former Arnold High School football standout told law enforcement a teacher provided him with alcohol and they had sex during his senior year of high school, according to documents released by Bay District Schools on Thursday.

Eddie Williams and Andre Allen, another football standout, gave conflicting statements to a district official prior to their interviews with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, which conducted a criminal investigation into the allegations against Karisa Wesley, a teacher, coach and athletic director at Arnold, according to school district and Bay County Sheriff’s Office documents obtained by The News Herald.

Wesley was suspended with pay Wednesday amid allegations she had a sexual relationship with Williams while he was an Arnold student.

The BCSO incident report on the allegations noted no criminal activity given Williams’ age — 19 at the time — and declared statutes of limitations on any potential misdemeanors had expired.

The investigation into the allegations began Aug. 5 after former Arnold teacher Peggy Rambosk Dawson, who is now a Walton County teacher, emailed Sharon Michalik, the district’s executive director of human resources, Arnold Principal Keith Bland and Assistant Principal Gordon Pongratz about allegations of an inappropriate relationship between Williams and Wesley. Superintendent Bill Husfelt decided Tuesday to meet with Wesley and then suspended her Wednesday, the district’s investigative reports say. Husfelt has recommended termination when the School Board is scheduled to consider the matter Tuesday.

School district policy prohibits a teacher from having a relationship with a current student regardless of whether the pupil is an adult. Williams attended Arnold until 2012.

Rumors of impropriety already had been swirling when, in July, Rambosk Dawson asked Allen about the relationship between Wesley, 35, and Williams. Allen told Rambosk Dawson that Wesley and teacher and assistant volleyball coach Tara Lemieux, 28, had smoked pot and drank alcohol with him and Williams at Wesley’s house in Panama City Beach during their senior year, according to the documents. Allen also alleged he heard Williams and Wesley having sex on several occasions, and Rambosk Dawson relayed to Bland via email what Allen said.

Williams denied having a sexual relationship with Wesley when Michalik questioned him, but on Tuesday he told BCSO Investigator Mitch Pitts the two had sex more than 10 times during the 2011-2012 school year, according to the investigative documents. He denied allegations they smoked marijuana and denied Allen was ever present when he was at Wesley’s house.

Allen told Pitts that he, Williams, Lemieux and Wesley smoked pot from a bong on one occasion and drank beer from Wesley’s fridge. He provided details about the type of refrigerator in Wesley’s house and the layout of furniture in her living room, according to the documents.

Allen told Michalik that Wesley would allow Williams to conceal his car in her garage during visits or he would park at a K-Mart near her house and she would pick him up. Allen told Michalik the relationship continued for much of the school year and Williams was “basically living with” Wesley by the end of the year.

Wesley and Lemieux, both of whom had tutored Williams, denied all the allegations in interviews with Michalik. Williams denied the relationship on Aug. 7 and 15 when Michalik questioned him, the documents note. But he told Pitts he had multiple sexual encounters with Wesley and ended the relationship prior to graduation in 2012.

Wesley is in her eighth season as volleyball coach. She assumed the role of athletic director in fall 2012 and replaced Julie Hale, whose supplemental position as athletic director was not renewed.

Williams was a student at Arnold for his sophomore, junior and senior years after attending Mosley as a freshman. He signed a national letter of intent to attend and play football for the University of Alabama.

He received a redshirt his freshman season at the Tuscaloosa, Ala., school but was dismissed from the team in February after being arrested on robbery and credit card fraud charges. He has since returned to Bay County and resides with his uncle, Derrick Williams.

Derrick Williams said no court date has been set in the robbery case and was hopeful Williams would be regarded as a “youthful offender,” which may place him under supervision on probation or in a community control program, with or without an adjudication of guilt. Derrick Williams said neither he nor Eddie Williams would comment on the allegations and the focus was on letting the legal system take its course with the aim of the wide receiver/defensive back playing at another college starting in January.

Allen is in his second season as a running back at Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College. Like Eddie Williams, Allen graduated in 2012. He attended Arnold for two years after moving from South Florida.

Allen’s father, Bruce, also declined comment, stating in a text message that he is “not approving anyone to talk to him (Andre Allen) or interview him.”

Wesley and Lemieux did not respond to multiple messages left Thursday.

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